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Friday, July 2, 2010

Forgive My Fins - Tera Lynn ChildsGenre: Young Adult Fantasy# of pages: 298Publisher: Harper Collins: Katherine Tegan BooksAmelia's Age-Level Recommendation: 12+ (great for middle schoolers and up)My ThoughtsForgive My Fins was a fun, entertaining read perfect for summertime. It's also the only book I can think of that's about mermaids. I definitely enjoyed reading about a new "paranormal" creature, that's for sure! (*New YA trend prediction!*)

There were several things I liked about this book. I don't think I've ever read a YA story about mermaids, so I had nothing to compare this to. Therefore I went in with a pretty open mind and as far as a story about mermaids goes, I liked it. Childs did a great job of creating the mermaid kingdom of Have-No-Idea-How-to-Pronounce, and her mythological backstory was very creative and original. Thank you, Tera Lynn! Creativity is something I look for in my "grading", and Fins really impressed me!Childs is also the kind of author who pays attention to "the little things." She's even gone so far as to create mer phrases/slangs, which may come across as a little cheesy, but still fun and cute. Childs does cute very well.Honestly, I've read a lot of other reviews that say that Fins is a little on the predictable side. I would have to disagree. There were actually several times throughout the story when I was really surprised by the turn of events. Some of the time, I could guess what was going to happen next, but several times something would happen that I didn't expect. Not going to spoil anything, but I was a little disappointed with the ending. If you've read Fins, do you agree?As much as I enjoyed Fins, though, and as much as I love Ms. Childs' books, I just had a really hard time warming up to the main character, Lily. I think that's because the story is told in her narrative, and so we get a little too much "Lily" and not enough other people. Sometimes she'd say things that were just downright mean, and so I know this review sounds kind of awkward, because as much as I loved the story, I kind of didn't like the main character. Have you ever had a reading experience like that?

HOWEVER: There were SO MANY GOOD THINGS about this book, and so I definitely recommend you give Fins a try! It's also a CLEAN read, so this is one that I can recommend to my students as well!

Whoa, June is gone, July is here, and summer is halfway over!June was a pretty good month reading-wise. I'm averaging about 1 book a week, which was actually my school-year average. Between going home, youth trips, and summer classes, 1 book a week doesn't seem so bad!June was an especially good month due to all the AMAZING, A+ books I read in a row. Here are some stats:Number of books: 6Favorite Read:Wondrous Strange Least Favorite Read: Forgive My Fins (sorry, but it's true!)Succeeds in Originality: Sabriel (it's part high fantasy, part alternate history, all creative!)Succeeds in Imitation: The Iron King (just not enough originality to outweigh all the cliches)Best Narrator/MC: Grace Divine, The Dark Divine (a girl who is smart, compassionate, not whiny and learns from her mistakes)Worst Narrator/MC: Lily Sanderson, Forgive My FinsBest Love Interest: tie between Sonny, Wondrous Strange & Touchstone, Sabriel Best Wisecracking Sidekick Character: Mogget the talking cat in SabrielAuthor (out of this group) I'd love to hang out with: Lesley Livingston (author of Wondrous Strange)Total # of pages read: 2,067Final Grades: